The battery drain depends on how the other programs are being handled by the processor. Take something like flash on the Pre (coming soon - they could have done the setup better but eh). When the user deselects the flash video and drops it into his stack of card to do something else, the flash application is paused, which ultimately creates a low processor and ultimately energy situation, while it sits in the background.
An application that has to run constantly, such as Pandora, would always use more energy, but the major point is, how much more energy. Having Apple defined multitasking on the iPhone is also an energy draining activity.
But in terms of the mobile, the vast majority of energy expenditure is towards the mobile chipset and the screen.
Some users are willing to compromise a little battery time for the ability to do multiple things, like the jailbreakers i know, where as others would prefer the longest possible battery life.
Apple didn't bece the most profitable handset maker in the world in 2 years by doing what the minority wanted. The results have been in for a long time unregulated multitasking completely at the user's discretion and without strong developer oversight is a major issue. You can't simply let everyone start opening apps and have them run continuously in te background. The argument that "it's my phone I should be able to do what I want wah" comes second to the product owner saying "it's my phone I need to make the user experience great or risk losing users".
I can think of a half-dozen app types that would benefit the user by running in th background, yet their only ever on app type and name given: Pandora. It' quite absurd to want a any and all apps to run in the background but then only offer one appas an example. How about a smarter approach to the problem. Like creating a backgrounding API so devs choose the appropriate apps to run in the background and the user chooses to enable these as background apps when you press the Home Button. It's how PNS works an that is a beautiful thing that allows me to get messages from 6 apps with only one miniscule process running.
DaHarder's claims that it has no affect on the system is comets BS and he knows it. I've owned pretty much every new smartphone from 2009 and not one was intelligent enough to handle background apps. The UI gets sluggish and eventally one will get killed. This is no way the average user should be using a phone.
To be fair, you are conparing iPhone OS v3.0 which arrived as a Beta almost 12 months ago and WinMo 7 which arrived as a demo today. If iPhone OS v4.0 doesn't offer a similar feature, likely next month, then I'll understand an unfavorable comparison. As it stands it's looks pretty good for iPhone OS v4.0 to beat WinMo 7 to market by 4-5 months.
Sure I can only compare what I have seen or read about. But WinMo had this specific feature for ages.
And I'm not as positive as you are about the iPhone OS 4.0 I was actually really shocked that Apple didn't really moved the OS forward for the iPad. And now there may not be enough room for complete new stuff if they don't wanne break a lot of compatibility.
But at the end of the day it isn't only about some numbers on the lock screen or some "gadgets/widgets" on the home screen (that would be easy to implement IMO). It's also about services (search, maps, speech), social stuff (communities, integration of the real-time web ...), there are now over 400 million Facebook users, 350 million or so Windows Live users, 500 million Office users (mostly the same people I guess *gg) and how many million Xbox Live members playing together? It's smart from Microsoft to bring all this together.
And finally the PC software: iTunes starts to be a real problem for Apple, I think. Not the service but the quality of the software!
DaHarder's claims that it has no affect on the system is comets (sp) BS and he knows it. I've owned pretty much every new smartphone from 2009 and not one was intelligent enough to handle background apps. The UI gets sluggish and eventally one will get killed. This is no way the average user should be using a phone.
[CENTER]You can restate your misinterpretation a million times, in a billion different ways, but it still won't make it the least bit true.
The truth is that I never claimed such a thing - In Fact, here's exactly what I posted:
"As far as your claim that multi-tasking results in suffering 'performance and battery life', I direct to Motorola's DROID, which multi-task any/all installed apps yet still consistently achieves greater battery autonomy than my iPhone 3GS."
Sure I can only compare what I have seen or read about. But WinMo had this specific feature for ages.
And I'm not as positive as you are about the iPhone OS 4.0 I was actually really shocked that Apple didn't really moved the OS forward for the iPad. And now there may not be enough room for complete new stuff if they don't wanne break a lot of compatibility.
But at the end of the day it isn't only about some numbers on the lock screen or some "gadgets/widgets" on the home screen (that would be easy to implement IMO). It's also about services (search, maps, speech), social stuff (communities, integration of the real-time web ...), there are now over 400 million Facebook users, 350 million or so Windows Live users, 500 million Office users (mostly the same people I guess *gg) and how many million Xbox Live members playing together? It's smart from Microsoft to bring all this together.
And finally the PC software: iTunes starts to be a real problem for Apple, I think. Not the service but the quality of the software!
That was my point that I brought up earlier. How much could Apple possibly do with iPhoneOS 4.0 so not as to take things too far away from the iPad's version of the OS. The two come from basically the same code branch so anything that's done on the iPhone isn't going to be too dramatically different from the iPad (IMHO).
If anything, the iPhone OS 4.0 is going to take a few tricks from the iPad (background images for the Springboard for example).
And it would be quite a shocker to see the iPhone get some wonderfully revamped, "balls to the wall", fresh UI makeover with the iPad getting left in the dust. Then the poo-pooing on the iPad would only increase.
I say this because there's no way in hell that the iPad is getting a serious UI overhaul any time this year.
I think this interface looks like it could be very interesting, but I wonder how it will put restrictions on how people can customise it so that it still looks clean and sensible.
In a Channel9 video the manager said that the user can choose the focus color that is blue here in the screen shots and choose between a bright and a dark theme: black text on white and for best for OLED screens white text on dark backgrounds.
The other customization is more of changing the content like re-arranging the tiles on the home screen and dynamically changed backgrounds in the music, photos and games hubs.
I've watched some of the videos for WM7 and there is a number of things that make me think this will be a failure. I hope my points are well reasoned and make sense.
1. Enterprise, enterprise, enterprise. When i worked for a global blue chip firm we all had WM phones. The issue being that they suited a hum drum, grey existence. Allowing me to get emails via our corporate servers but with a web browser so bad, that it put people off viewing the web which for the business was a bonus as it kept bills low. Does anyone else notice that this is positioned as a real consumer device, over and above business enterprise?
Now normally thats no bad thing, but WM incumbent (maybe only) customer in these hard competitive times is the enterprise market. Why would you potentially spur your only sales base? Because you have to....as your market share is rapidly decreasing, it's like the last desperate gamble at a poker table imho.
2. Play the coming soon game and in effect paralyse sales also known as Premature Ejacu-nouncement
Microsoft has gone out and said, you know what we've got something amazing. It's not coming out until autumn and it's a massive improvement over what we currently ship. Do MS really expect, tech savvy buyers to go, yes I'll go ahead and make that WM 6.5.? device purchase?
Its all cool if your device happens to be something with a pent-up demand or is defining a new market, but they've effectively just EOL alot of phones, some still not even released yet. Great news if your a MS vendor, developer or handset manufacturer. Imagine a car maker doing this.....it would have the same effect, people delay purchases and sales drop.
What about people who've recently bought a WM phone, say last week? Now everyone knows in the tech world you're never up to date, but has MS said anything about upgrades...transitioning assistance for current users old and new? No because their min spec will most likely not be fixed for a few more months meaning everyone will have to upgrade. Going off past WM updates and upgrades, I'd say dependant on handset maker, you've got a cat in hells chance. Yeah thats going to make people really happy, its like the reverse of a brand advocate. I doubt we'll see updates akin to the iphone and android here, it's got the G1 feeling about it 4 sure, though lets not confuse it with play4sure (cough)!
3. It's dead Jim, damn it I'm a WM developer not a medium...
People reporting on the new WM7 state that all previous app frameworks have been jettisoned, most liekyl ready for a new SDK based on the familiar Zune PLayer. So what does that mean for app development? it means your stuffed, current development is now still-born and companies reliant on specific software just found out it's legacy code...well it will be come autumn, winter, spring...you get the picture.
Now this cuts several ways. Lost revenue for app developers, both in terms of saleable apps and apps in development. An increased cost for future development, attempts at conversion- zero incentive!
Thats the cold light of the this. Doing a Palm and killing your OS is all well and good, when you've got your replacement ready. What would a WM developer do for the next say 7 months...migrate to iphone, android and webos more than likely.
4. Is it enough?
I'm not sure it is, but i guess time will tell. Personally for it to stand a chanceI think they needed to have need it ready for March. I guess it's time to place your bets.
Apple didn't bece the most profitable handset maker in the world in 2 years by doing what the minority wanted.
lol Apple became the most profitable by making an attractive consumer proposition at low production cost but high consumer cost.
As long as the proposition vs percieved value is suitable for the average consumer, it will sell, inspite of its deficiencies. Aka Windows.
Quote:
The results have been in for a long time unregulated multitasking completely at the user's discretion and without strong developer oversight is a major issue.
Who said anything about unregulated multitasking with no developer oversight?
Apple, with their complete control over the apps experience is in the prime seat to work with their developers to provide the best multitasking enviroment with minimal battery life cost.
Quote:
You can't simply let everyone start opening apps and have them run continuously in te background. The argument that "it's my phone I should be able to do what I want wah" comes second to the product owner saying "it's my phone I need to make the user experience great or risk losing users".
Its nice that you built a strawman
Quote:
I can think of a half-dozen app types that would benefit the user by running in th background, yet their only ever on app type and name given: Pandora.
The closest i get to pandora is shoutcast, and yes it is irritating having to kill my radio to do other things. It sure would be nice not to kill my game to go grab an email, but ultimately to me, i hardly use any games, or any apps to make multitasking of any real value.
Now, an iPad might be a little hardwer to justify that, but I will see what becomes of it, adn how much the local importers try to do me over on the product.
Quote:
DaHarder's claims that it has no affect on the system is comets BS and he knows it.
so, perhaps not a strawman, but a reading issue. He never claimed that.
Quote:
I've owned pretty much every new smartphone from 2009 and not one was intelligent enough to handle background apps. The UI gets sluggish and eventally one will get killed. This is no way the average user should be using a phone.
the only one of interest for me is the pre, but its underpowered and not here. But, their style of multitasking seems pretty simple, even for the average moron.
2. Play the coming soon game and in effect paralyse sales also known as Premature Ejacu-nouncement
Microsoft has gone out and said, you know what we've got something amazing. It's not coming out to autumn and it's a massive improvement over what we currently ship. Do MS really expect, tech savvy buyers to go, yes I'll go ahead and make that WM 6.5.? device purchase?
They have to do it this way because it's a whole new platform and what they need before they can hit the marked it to have a lot of apps and content for this platform. Therefore they showed us what is coming and they tried to get as much interest from developers as possible so they will attend MIX next month and start coding.
Yes, they will lose customers on WinMo 6.5, but that shows how serious they are this time.
Keep in mind that Ballmer said the OS would be ready for the holiday season, but he did not say what year.......
MS has NEVER hit a release date for a new OS. So, there is zero chance this OS will hit the public market by December. The new phone OS will arrive some time late in 2011 and should be bug tolerable by say 2012. However, as fast as Android is growing, I think the Win Mobile 7 OS will be irrelevant and more or less replaced by the time it is released....
I'm liking the way this competition is shaping up to be. With Android becoming an increasing thorn at Apple's side, (take Jobs' "they're trying to kill us!" line) hopefully this will drive an incentive towards innovation for 4.0.
I don't like how iPhone users have gotten so complacent with features to the point where they tell anyone of differing opinion that "it isn't an important update until Apple tells me it is!" Of course that demonstrates the effect of brand loyalty, but also dissuades any potential FUTURE consumer if they notice the actual iPhone experience hasn't changed relatively much since it's inception in 2007. Many people beyond Apple's circle of appeal have noticed the increasing rate of stagnation the platform is facing, while the userbase themselves has tricked themselves into believing that all the competitors are just copycats and no real change needs to happen.
In all honesty, I think increased competition is a good thing. Innovation is fueled by competition, and only the consumers win when companies are forced to go beyond their comfort zones. In the end, the experience of the consumer should come first, not the enjoyment of seeing stock numbers going up for your favorite company.
When is 'the holiday season'? Someone wrote October. If that's the case, Apple will most likely have new things out already, and M$ couldn't possible add additions things after Apple's announcement/release in July(?)
Phil
Yes, but since Win 7 Mob is not out until October or November... do we know if what was presented is final version, and no additional work on it will be done until release? Or is it beta, release candidate..?
My thinking is, if it is final (and locked to further development), I'd expect it to hit shelves before end of the year.
1. Enterprise, enterprise, enterprise. When i worked for a global blue chip firm we all had WM phones. The issue being that they suited a hum drum, grey existence. Allowing me to get emails via our corporate servers but with a web browser so bad, that it put people off viewing the web which for the business was a bonus as it kept bills low. Does anyone else notice that this is positioned as a real consumer device, over and above business enterprise?
What did stop you from installing any 3rd part web browser?
Right now, the greatest problem Windows Phone 7 running against it is time. Let us be honest here, the main competitor of Windows Phone 7 for now is not Apple, it's Google . Remember , Microsoft is not only competing against Goggle for the consumer mindshare, they are also competing for cell phone manufacturers to have phones carry their respective phone OS. Any delays on Microsoft's part sets them back and if they released a Vista like product or repeat the Play for Sure debacle. They would not only give the Phone 7 platform ( which appears to be a wonderful Phone platform) a black eye, Microsoft would lose their cell phone partners to Goggle's Android .
The pressure for Microsoft here is great, Windows Phone 7 series must come out swinging out of the gate and must perform equal or beyond expectations. In my opinion, this is Microsoft's last stand in the mobile communications department and that is the reason they outdid themselves this time. Unlike 1995, the competition are playing for keeps. So ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourself for the mobile ride of our lives because when it's all said and done, the winners will be the consumers and hopefully our wallets as well.
Unlike 1995, the competition are playing for keeps. So ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourself for the mobile ride of our lives because when it's all said and done, the winners will be the consumers and hopefully our wallets as well.
Ex-Microsoft employee compares Windows Phone 7 to Vista
By Tom Warren
Scott Barnes, formerly a Microsoft Rich Platform Product Manager (WPF & Silverlight), has voiced his opinions on the Windows Phone 7 user interface (UI).
Barnes covers various topics of thought on the Windows Phone 7 announcements and admits when he initially saw the early specs, whilst he was working at Microsoft, he was "a little jaded with the whole level of commitment to the UX." He compares the new UI to that of the iPhone:
"the UI is trying a little to hard to do the opposite of the iPhone, like it?s a challenge they need to rise up against. Examples like no Icons, panning up/down instead of left / right for content etc seems to pack a little too much anti-iPhone."
Barnes also feels the Windows Phone 7 launch is similar to Vista. "This is the Windows Vista launch, as after some code resets and downward pressure from above this is almost exactly the same internal conditions Windows Vista team had before their launch, 'get it to market, get it fast and we?ll come back around for the bits we wanted to put in place'."
After playing with a Windows Phone 7 series device I have similar concerns about the user interface. It's fast and gives you a quick overview of information but having to "Pivot" (slide) through panels of information isn't natural and could easily cause usability issues. Sliding to different parts of content is fine in principle, providing you know there's more content to slide to and you have a preview or understanding of what content you can slide to in either direction. I feel that Windows Phone 7 doesn't address this and buries options and content too far into what is referred to as a "Hub".
Microsoft switched their strategy for Windows Mobile approximately two years ago when they decided to "reset". Similar to the Longhorn (Vista) reset and subsequent development of Windows 7, Windows Mobile internal groups went through restructuring and a series of changes designed to improve the development process. I can't help but feel despite this effort, and the tasks involved, that it could be too late. The UI is basic and doesn't offer anything really compelling that makes you want to purchase a Windows Phone 7 device yet. The integration with web services is fantastic and a great step in the right direction but the UI is lacking somewhat. HTC spent years covering up the UI problems in Windows Mobile and Microsoft seems to have addressed this by ensuring every part of the OS now looks the same and functions the same. The problem is by doing this they have lost a great UI that they could have embraced and built upon in partnership with HTC. It's still not fully clear whether HTC will bring a cut down version of Sense to Windows Phone 7. The company could a Start Screen tile or Custom Hub. Loking at Windows Phone 6.5 with the Sense UI and comparing this to Windows Phone 7, I don't get the feeling of "wow" or usability that I get with the HTC Sense bar or impressive weather animations. The rest of the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system underneath isn't as consistent however, Windows Phone 7 fixes that issue.
Despite my UI reservations, Microsoft has many months until Windows Phone 7 will hit the market. We know very little about how applications will interface with the operating system and which developers plan to create Windows Phone 7 apps. The juicy details of how Windows Phone 7 will position itself in the market won't arrive for another few weeks until MIX 2010 in March. Meanwhile Apple is likely to react to the announcements with its own plans for the iPhone OS 4.0 and next generation iPhone device due in June/July. If Apple has some interesting changes to their iPhone OS and impressive hardware then Microsoft could be on the back foot before Windows Phone 7 Series devices have even shipped.
I can live without it on the iPhone, but the iPad (ugh, I hate the name™) had better have this feature.
Isn't the UI of the iPad already finished? From what we've already seen, I don't think we're gonna have that functionality. And Apple only seems to update its mobile OSes (major update) once a year.
Comments
The battery drain depends on how the other programs are being handled by the processor. Take something like flash on the Pre (coming soon - they could have done the setup better but eh). When the user deselects the flash video and drops it into his stack of card to do something else, the flash application is paused, which ultimately creates a low processor and ultimately energy situation, while it sits in the background.
An application that has to run constantly, such as Pandora, would always use more energy, but the major point is, how much more energy. Having Apple defined multitasking on the iPhone is also an energy draining activity.
But in terms of the mobile, the vast majority of energy expenditure is towards the mobile chipset and the screen.
Some users are willing to compromise a little battery time for the ability to do multiple things, like the jailbreakers i know, where as others would prefer the longest possible battery life.
Apple didn't bece the most profitable handset maker in the world in 2 years by doing what the minority wanted. The results have been in for a long time unregulated multitasking completely at the user's discretion and without strong developer oversight is a major issue. You can't simply let everyone start opening apps and have them run continuously in te background. The argument that "it's my phone I should be able to do what I want wah" comes second to the product owner saying "it's my phone I need to make the user experience great or risk losing users".
I can think of a half-dozen app types that would benefit the user by running in th background, yet their only ever on app type and name given: Pandora. It' quite absurd to want a any and all apps to run in the background but then only offer one appas an example. How about a smarter approach to the problem. Like creating a backgrounding API so devs choose the appropriate apps to run in the background and the user chooses to enable these as background apps when you press the Home Button. It's how PNS works an that is a beautiful thing that allows me to get messages from 6 apps with only one miniscule process running.
DaHarder's claims that it has no affect on the system is comets BS and he knows it. I've owned pretty much every new smartphone from 2009 and not one was intelligent enough to handle background apps. The UI gets sluggish and eventally one will get killed. This is no way the average user should be using a phone.
To be fair, you are conparing iPhone OS v3.0 which arrived as a Beta almost 12 months ago and WinMo 7 which arrived as a demo today. If iPhone OS v4.0 doesn't offer a similar feature, likely next month, then I'll understand an unfavorable comparison. As it stands it's looks pretty good for iPhone OS v4.0 to beat WinMo 7 to market by 4-5 months.
Sure I can only compare what I have seen or read about. But WinMo had this specific feature for ages.
And I'm not as positive as you are about the iPhone OS 4.0 I was actually really shocked that Apple didn't really moved the OS forward for the iPad. And now there may not be enough room for complete new stuff if they don't wanne break a lot of compatibility.
But at the end of the day it isn't only about some numbers on the lock screen or some "gadgets/widgets" on the home screen (that would be easy to implement IMO). It's also about services (search, maps, speech), social stuff (communities, integration of the real-time web ...), there are now over 400 million Facebook users, 350 million or so Windows Live users, 500 million Office users (mostly the same people I guess *gg) and how many million Xbox Live members playing together? It's smart from Microsoft to bring all this together.
And finally the PC software: iTunes starts to be a real problem for Apple, I think. Not the service but the quality of the software!
DaHarder's claims that it has no affect on the system is comets (sp) BS and he knows it. I've owned pretty much every new smartphone from 2009 and not one was intelligent enough to handle background apps. The UI gets sluggish and eventally one will get killed. This is no way the average user should be using a phone.
[CENTER]You can restate your misinterpretation a million times, in a billion different ways, but it still won't make it the least bit true.
The truth is that I never claimed such a thing - In Fact, here's exactly what I posted:
"As far as your claim that multi-tasking results in suffering 'performance and battery life', I direct to Motorola's DROID, which multi-task any/all installed apps yet still consistently achieves greater battery autonomy than my iPhone 3GS."
See How Simple That Was...[/CENTER]
Sure I can only compare what I have seen or read about. But WinMo had this specific feature for ages.
And I'm not as positive as you are about the iPhone OS 4.0 I was actually really shocked that Apple didn't really moved the OS forward for the iPad. And now there may not be enough room for complete new stuff if they don't wanne break a lot of compatibility.
But at the end of the day it isn't only about some numbers on the lock screen or some "gadgets/widgets" on the home screen (that would be easy to implement IMO). It's also about services (search, maps, speech), social stuff (communities, integration of the real-time web ...), there are now over 400 million Facebook users, 350 million or so Windows Live users, 500 million Office users (mostly the same people I guess *gg) and how many million Xbox Live members playing together? It's smart from Microsoft to bring all this together.
And finally the PC software: iTunes starts to be a real problem for Apple, I think. Not the service but the quality of the software!
That was my point that I brought up earlier. How much could Apple possibly do with iPhoneOS 4.0 so not as to take things too far away from the iPad's version of the OS. The two come from basically the same code branch so anything that's done on the iPhone isn't going to be too dramatically different from the iPad (IMHO).
If anything, the iPhone OS 4.0 is going to take a few tricks from the iPad (background images for the Springboard for example).
And it would be quite a shocker to see the iPhone get some wonderfully revamped, "balls to the wall", fresh UI makeover with the iPad getting left in the dust. Then the poo-pooing on the iPad would only increase.
I say this because there's no way in hell that the iPad is getting a serious UI overhaul any time this year.
I think this interface looks like it could be very interesting, but I wonder how it will put restrictions on how people can customise it so that it still looks clean and sensible.
In a Channel9 video the manager said that the user can choose the focus color that is blue here in the screen shots and choose between a bright and a dark theme: black text on white and for best for OLED screens white text on dark backgrounds.
The other customization is more of changing the content like re-arranging the tiles on the home screen and dynamically changed backgrounds in the music, photos and games hubs.
1. Enterprise, enterprise, enterprise. When i worked for a global blue chip firm we all had WM phones. The issue being that they suited a hum drum, grey existence. Allowing me to get emails via our corporate servers but with a web browser so bad, that it put people off viewing the web which for the business was a bonus as it kept bills low. Does anyone else notice that this is positioned as a real consumer device, over and above business enterprise?
Now normally thats no bad thing, but WM incumbent (maybe only) customer in these hard competitive times is the enterprise market. Why would you potentially spur your only sales base? Because you have to....as your market share is rapidly decreasing, it's like the last desperate gamble at a poker table imho.
2. Play the coming soon game and in effect paralyse sales also known as Premature Ejacu-nouncement
Microsoft has gone out and said, you know what we've got something amazing. It's not coming out until autumn and it's a massive improvement over what we currently ship. Do MS really expect, tech savvy buyers to go, yes I'll go ahead and make that WM 6.5.? device purchase?
Its all cool if your device happens to be something with a pent-up demand or is defining a new market, but they've effectively just EOL alot of phones, some still not even released yet. Great news if your a MS vendor, developer or handset manufacturer. Imagine a car maker doing this.....it would have the same effect, people delay purchases and sales drop.
What about people who've recently bought a WM phone, say last week? Now everyone knows in the tech world you're never up to date, but has MS said anything about upgrades...transitioning assistance for current users old and new? No because their min spec will most likely not be fixed for a few more months meaning everyone will have to upgrade. Going off past WM updates and upgrades, I'd say dependant on handset maker, you've got a cat in hells chance. Yeah thats going to make people really happy, its like the reverse of a brand advocate. I doubt we'll see updates akin to the iphone and android here, it's got the G1 feeling about it 4 sure, though lets not confuse it with play4sure (cough)!
3. It's dead Jim, damn it I'm a WM developer not a medium...
People reporting on the new WM7 state that all previous app frameworks have been jettisoned, most liekyl ready for a new SDK based on the familiar Zune PLayer. So what does that mean for app development? it means your stuffed, current development is now still-born and companies reliant on specific software just found out it's legacy code...well it will be come autumn, winter, spring...you get the picture.
Now this cuts several ways. Lost revenue for app developers, both in terms of saleable apps and apps in development. An increased cost for future development, attempts at conversion- zero incentive!
Thats the cold light of the this. Doing a Palm and killing your OS is all well and good, when you've got your replacement ready. What would a WM developer do for the next say 7 months...migrate to iphone, android and webos more than likely.
4. Is it enough?
I'm not sure it is, but i guess time will tell. Personally for it to stand a chanceI think they needed to have need it ready for March. I guess it's time to place your bets.
Apple didn't bece the most profitable handset maker in the world in 2 years by doing what the minority wanted.
lol Apple became the most profitable by making an attractive consumer proposition at low production cost but high consumer cost.
As long as the proposition vs percieved value is suitable for the average consumer, it will sell, inspite of its deficiencies. Aka Windows.
The results have been in for a long time unregulated multitasking completely at the user's discretion and without strong developer oversight is a major issue.
Who said anything about unregulated multitasking with no developer oversight?
Apple, with their complete control over the apps experience is in the prime seat to work with their developers to provide the best multitasking enviroment with minimal battery life cost.
You can't simply let everyone start opening apps and have them run continuously in te background. The argument that "it's my phone I should be able to do what I want wah" comes second to the product owner saying "it's my phone I need to make the user experience great or risk losing users".
Its nice that you built a strawman
I can think of a half-dozen app types that would benefit the user by running in th background, yet their only ever on app type and name given: Pandora.
The closest i get to pandora is shoutcast, and yes it is irritating having to kill my radio to do other things. It sure would be nice not to kill my game to go grab an email, but ultimately to me, i hardly use any games, or any apps to make multitasking of any real value.
Now, an iPad might be a little hardwer to justify that, but I will see what becomes of it, adn how much the local importers try to do me over on the product.
DaHarder's claims that it has no affect on the system is comets BS and he knows it.
so, perhaps not a strawman, but a reading issue. He never claimed that.
I've owned pretty much every new smartphone from 2009 and not one was intelligent enough to handle background apps. The UI gets sluggish and eventally one will get killed. This is no way the average user should be using a phone.
the only one of interest for me is the pre, but its underpowered and not here. But, their style of multitasking seems pretty simple, even for the average moron.
2. Play the coming soon game and in effect paralyse sales also known as Premature Ejacu-nouncement
Microsoft has gone out and said, you know what we've got something amazing. It's not coming out to autumn and it's a massive improvement over what we currently ship. Do MS really expect, tech savvy buyers to go, yes I'll go ahead and make that WM 6.5.? device purchase?
They have to do it this way because it's a whole new platform and what they need before they can hit the marked it to have a lot of apps and content for this platform. Therefore they showed us what is coming and they tried to get as much interest from developers as possible so they will attend MIX next month and start coding.
Yes, they will lose customers on WinMo 6.5, but that shows how serious they are this time.
MS has NEVER hit a release date for a new OS. So, there is zero chance this OS will hit the public market by December. The new phone OS will arrive some time late in 2011 and should be bug tolerable by say 2012. However, as fast as Android is growing, I think the Win Mobile 7 OS will be irrelevant and more or less replaced by the time it is released....
It is just my opinion of course...
I don't like how iPhone users have gotten so complacent with features to the point where they tell anyone of differing opinion that "it isn't an important update until Apple tells me it is!" Of course that demonstrates the effect of brand loyalty, but also dissuades any potential FUTURE consumer if they notice the actual iPhone experience hasn't changed relatively much since it's inception in 2007. Many people beyond Apple's circle of appeal have noticed the increasing rate of stagnation the platform is facing, while the userbase themselves has tricked themselves into believing that all the competitors are just copycats and no real change needs to happen.
In all honesty, I think increased competition is a good thing. Innovation is fueled by competition, and only the consumers win when companies are forced to go beyond their comfort zones. In the end, the experience of the consumer should come first, not the enjoyment of seeing stock numbers going up for your favorite company.
When is 'the holiday season'? Someone wrote October. If that's the case, Apple will most likely have new things out already, and M$ couldn't possible add additions things after Apple's announcement/release in July(?)
Phil
Yes, but since Win 7 Mob is not out until October or November... do we know if what was presented is final version, and no additional work on it will be done until release? Or is it beta, release candidate..?
My thinking is, if it is final (and locked to further development), I'd expect it to hit shelves before end of the year.
1. Enterprise, enterprise, enterprise. When i worked for a global blue chip firm we all had WM phones. The issue being that they suited a hum drum, grey existence. Allowing me to get emails via our corporate servers but with a web browser so bad, that it put people off viewing the web which for the business was a bonus as it kept bills low. Does anyone else notice that this is positioned as a real consumer device, over and above business enterprise?
What did stop you from installing any 3rd part web browser?
I couldn't care less. I don't think I'll ever buy ANYTHING Microsoft produces.
[CENTER]Thanks for sharing... [/CENTER]
The pressure for Microsoft here is great, Windows Phone 7 series must come out swinging out of the gate and must perform equal or beyond expectations. In my opinion, this is Microsoft's last stand in the mobile communications department and that is the reason they outdid themselves this time. Unlike 1995, the competition are playing for keeps. So ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourself for the mobile ride of our lives because when it's all said and done, the winners will be the consumers and hopefully our wallets as well.
[CENTER]Thanks for sharing... [/CENTER]
Just an observation... what's up with all your text being centered?
Unlike 1995, the competition are playing for keeps. So ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourself for the mobile ride of our lives because when it's all said and done, the winners will be the consumers and hopefully our wallets as well.
Best way to sum it up.
http://www.neowin.net/news/ex-micros...in.net+News%29
Ex-Microsoft employee compares Windows Phone 7 to Vista
By Tom Warren
Scott Barnes, formerly a Microsoft Rich Platform Product Manager (WPF & Silverlight), has voiced his opinions on the Windows Phone 7 user interface (UI).
Barnes covers various topics of thought on the Windows Phone 7 announcements and admits when he initially saw the early specs, whilst he was working at Microsoft, he was "a little jaded with the whole level of commitment to the UX." He compares the new UI to that of the iPhone:
"the UI is trying a little to hard to do the opposite of the iPhone, like it?s a challenge they need to rise up against. Examples like no Icons, panning up/down instead of left / right for content etc seems to pack a little too much anti-iPhone."
Barnes also feels the Windows Phone 7 launch is similar to Vista. "This is the Windows Vista launch, as after some code resets and downward pressure from above this is almost exactly the same internal conditions Windows Vista team had before their launch, 'get it to market, get it fast and we?ll come back around for the bits we wanted to put in place'."
After playing with a Windows Phone 7 series device I have similar concerns about the user interface. It's fast and gives you a quick overview of information but having to "Pivot" (slide) through panels of information isn't natural and could easily cause usability issues. Sliding to different parts of content is fine in principle, providing you know there's more content to slide to and you have a preview or understanding of what content you can slide to in either direction. I feel that Windows Phone 7 doesn't address this and buries options and content too far into what is referred to as a "Hub".
Microsoft switched their strategy for Windows Mobile approximately two years ago when they decided to "reset". Similar to the Longhorn (Vista) reset and subsequent development of Windows 7, Windows Mobile internal groups went through restructuring and a series of changes designed to improve the development process. I can't help but feel despite this effort, and the tasks involved, that it could be too late. The UI is basic and doesn't offer anything really compelling that makes you want to purchase a Windows Phone 7 device yet. The integration with web services is fantastic and a great step in the right direction but the UI is lacking somewhat. HTC spent years covering up the UI problems in Windows Mobile and Microsoft seems to have addressed this by ensuring every part of the OS now looks the same and functions the same. The problem is by doing this they have lost a great UI that they could have embraced and built upon in partnership with HTC. It's still not fully clear whether HTC will bring a cut down version of Sense to Windows Phone 7. The company could a Start Screen tile or Custom Hub. Loking at Windows Phone 6.5 with the Sense UI and comparing this to Windows Phone 7, I don't get the feeling of "wow" or usability that I get with the HTC Sense bar or impressive weather animations. The rest of the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system underneath isn't as consistent however, Windows Phone 7 fixes that issue.
Despite my UI reservations, Microsoft has many months until Windows Phone 7 will hit the market. We know very little about how applications will interface with the operating system and which developers plan to create Windows Phone 7 apps. The juicy details of how Windows Phone 7 will position itself in the market won't arrive for another few weeks until MIX 2010 in March. Meanwhile Apple is likely to react to the announcements with its own plans for the iPhone OS 4.0 and next generation iPhone device due in June/July. If Apple has some interesting changes to their iPhone OS and impressive hardware then Microsoft could be on the back foot before Windows Phone 7 Series devices have even shipped.
If anyone is still on the fence about the new UI, I think short video pretty much sums up the experience in comparison to the iPhone:
http://gizmodo.com/5472235/windows-p...yline=true&s=i
The whole going into an app, then having to hit the Home button to go back -- rinse and repeat -- vs Microsoft's approach.
The video makes the point perfectly.
I can live without it on the iPhone, but the iPad (ugh, I hate the name?) had better have this feature.
I can live without it on the iPhone, but the iPad (ugh, I hate the name™) had better have this feature.
Isn't the UI of the iPad already finished? From what we've already seen, I don't think we're gonna have that functionality. And Apple only seems to update its mobile OSes (major update) once a year.